Austin Airport tips for #SXSW

“For the ninth consecutive year, Austin Bergstrom International Airport has reported a year-over-year rise in passenger numbers. The Central Texas airport welcomed 15,819,912 passengers in 2018, a 13.9 percent increase over 2017 passenger numbers. For the first time in its history, the airport saw at least one million flyers passing through the airport every month, with July setting a monthly record for over 1.5 million passengers. In 2017, 13.8 million passengers flew through the airport.

In addition to the increase in total passenger numbers, Austin’s Airport also saw a 34.5 percent increase in international traffic, totaling over 380,000 passengers for 2018. This was largely due to new flight additions and larger aircraft equipment on international routes.”

Overall, this is kind of amazing growth year over year, and for the last decade. We leverage that direct flight to London on a regular basis, but there are also new flights to Toronto and Mexico that are great for Austinites.

And now the new east terminal expansion is complete- ironically taking capacity to 15 million in a year when we already processed 16 million – so if you’re flying in and out of Austin for SXSW this year, you may experience the brand new wing of the airport. My last flight home landed the day before that wing opened, so I don’t have eyes on experience with it. But what I can tell you is that if you are landing in Austin on a domestic flights and have bags to pick up, use the time you would have spent waiting for bags to go and get a bite to eat inside the secure area. If I can make a few recommendations:

Peached Tortilla. Get the banh-mi taco and brisket taco duo. You won’t be sorry. The rest of the menu is fantastic, but that’s “the order”.

Taco Deli. Fancy local sourced tacos. I’m a fan of the Cowboy Taco, and of course, the Deli Belly taco. But you can’t go wrong with the shrimp tacos.

Second Bar + Kitchen. This is a great restaurant downtown – and in the airport.

Briggo – save this for the flight out – it’s good coffee, better than what you’ll get on the airplane, and you can order on your mobile app.

Stubbs BBQ – the order you might not realize is amazing is the baked potato, fully loaded with BBQ. It will likely feed two of you.

Apparently, over 833,000 tacos were sold in the Airport in 2018. It would have been more if Taco Deli and Peached Tortilla had been open all year.

If you’re looking for flexible options flying in and out of Austin, Southwest rules the day for direct flights:

Southwest added new flights to Indianapolis, San Francisco, and Sacramento in 2018. Despite rapid expansion by multiple carriers, Southwest retains the crown as Austin’s largest airline. The carrier flew 5.5 million people, over two million more than the second largest carrier in the city, American Airlines.